Better Than a Tithe
So today
the first fact that we learn in the first verse is that it took Solomon 13
years to build his own house. Now, I
understand that there are time constraints (or problems) that come along and
push the builder back. But let’s be
clear about something. It took Solomon 7
years to complete the Temple of the Lord and 13 years to complete his
house. Of the 20 years he built, 2/3 of
the time was spent on his own personal construction.
My first
instinct is to really slam that fact today.
I mean, if there is any act that demonstrates greater concern for
himself than for God this is it, right?
To some extent I think this criticism is warranted. Solomon spends twice as long on his own
personal building than he does on the building of the Lord. Where is his focus, right?
On the
other hand, how guilty am I of the same thing?
I count myself as having fulfilled my “duty” to God when I hit the 10%
mark! 10% of my money, time, and effort
equals a tithe, right? Well, Solomon
clearly gives 33% according to the Word.
So I don’t know if the criticism really should last. He does go above and beyond the call of duty
over three times what would have been expected.
I am humbled by this today. I
came in today ready to blast Solomon and as I type this I find myself needing
to be humbled by Solomon’s example.
Temple Furnishings
There is
much to be said about the Temple furnishings given at the end of this chapter,
but I am going to focus especially on the two named pillars: Jachin and
Boaz. Jachin means “He shall uphold” and
Boaz means “May strength be in Him.”
These pillars are reminiscent of the advice that God has twice given to
Solomon: “If you only follow in my ways then I will establish my covenant with
you.”
How sad it
is that these pillars would stand for less than 500 years. In fact, how sad it is that the person who
erected these pillars and named them could not hold fast to their meaning! Thirty years (or so) after these pillars are
erected the kingdom is split and caught in a full slide away from God’s
ways. Things progressively go from bad to
worse (with a few bright spots in the kings of Judah) until Judah is taken into
captivity and the temple is destroyed.
How sad it is that the advice of God isn’t followed.
Again,
though, I have to feel the criticism point right back towards me – or in this
case my own country. How long ago was
the heyday for American Christianity? We
had the first Great Awakening in the 1720’s -1750’s with pastors like Jonathon
Edwards and George Whitefield leading great theological movements. In the early 1800’s we experience a second
Great Awakening movement led by preachers such as Lyman Beecher and Peter
Cartwright. The late 1800’s saw the
development of the Third Great Awakening that brought about the Salvation Army
and the Holiness movement. The years
following World War II saw a Fourth Great Awakening with the arrival of
preachers like Billy Graham and movements like the Jesus Movement. Regardless of whether or not you agree with
all the spiritual points in this paragraph, it is clear that the Holy Spirit
has been at work in our country. And
look at us now. An awakening happens, a
generation enjoys it, and then we slide into spiritual decline. We are not really any different than the
Hebrew people after their Temple was constructed.
In all of
this, I think we can learn two things.
First, we must be vigilant with our faith. We must be vigilant with teaching our faith
to the next generation. We must not
weaken in our pursuit of God.
Yet, we
must also realize that falling away from God is part of humanity. We must expect great spiritual movements to
wane. After all, look at the act of
Pentecost in the New Testament.
Certainly the church has moved forward since Pentecost, but it didn’t
take even a full generation for the spiritual effect of Pentecost to
lessen. It is the way of the world. This is why we must be vigilant in the pursuit
of our faith.
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